Ways to Keep in Touch With Your Friends

In today's global society, friends move away to go to school or start

families, travel all over the world for work and pleasure and settle
down in places far away from their hometowns. But thanks to the
Internet, keeping in touch with friends is easier now than ever before -
and don't discount old-fashioned methods of keeping in touch.

Social Networking

Social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter are becoming

the primary way of keeping in touch with numerous friends over great
distances. You can use a social networking platform to check in on
your friends, and they can see what you've been up to as well. Some
platforms have private and instant-messaging capacity so you can
carry on conversations with your friends.

Virtual Chat

Skype and Google Chat are two free ways that you can video chat
with friends online regardless of their location or yours. All you need
is a computer with a Web cam and an Internet connection. While you
are chatting, a box with your friend's face appears on your screen.
Video chatting with friends is the next best thing to conversing with
them in your living room.

Start an Email List

If you have many friends with whom to keep in touch, consider

creating an email list and sending a monthly or quarterly overview of
your life to everyone at once. This is like a regular newsletter sent out
by your favorite organization, but about yourself. Include tidbits about
what you've been up to recently, what you're working on and new
photos. This way you don't have to write a separate email to each
friend, but each can respond to you individually.
Get Retro

Remember how exciting it was to get a handwritten letter from your

foreign pen pal when you were young? Remember the simple
pleasure of talking to your best friend for hours on your family's only
phone? Many people believe that there's nothing like a handwritten
letter or an old-fashioned phone call. If this sounds like you, devote
one night per week to writing to a friend or giving someone special a
call to see how they are.